"He That Forgets His Brother Will Bury Himself"(An Igbo Proverb) - Sankofa Creative Competition #3

As seen above, this is an Igbo proverb from South-Eastern Nigeria that tells us the importance of loyalty to others. Even if we chose to be selfish, we can in that selfishness still realize that we need other people to achieve our ends. The corollary of abandoning others is that that we cannot do so without finding ourselves alone. The short fairy tale that follows is an attempt to illustrate this. Thanks in advance for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

Long long ago, there was a Shining Kingdom small but wealthy, peaceful yet strong. The ruler of that kingdom was a wise and noble king in whom his people were well-pleased.

However, even in the Shining Kingdom, all was not well. The king had a daughter but no son and no queen to bear him another. While he knew his daughter would rule well, he also knew that she would be forced to fight endless unnecessary wars against those who would think her weak. Therefore she needed a king of her own.

The king was wise so he sought a means to gain this male heir without turning his kingdom into turmoil. After much thought and consultation with his most trusted sages, the king devised a plan.

First, he decided to choose his new heir from among those already in his court, the scions of the nobility. Quietly, he began to observe them, to conduct little tests, without telling any of them what he planned. Some noticed that the king was behaving oddly but none suspected what his plans might be.

After some weeks of this, the king had found two young men of whom he approved, so much so that he could not decide between them. Okeke and Okafor, sons of two of his trusted advisers. Both were strong, both were clever, both appeared to be good to others. However, Okeke was very trusting and Okafor had a condition that would sometimes take his breath away. He needed to test them further.

As things transpired, it came to pass that the king’s ofo was stolen. Now, the ofo was a very important artifact and indeed the keystone of the king’s rulership. The king swiftly consulted with his wise men and dibia and it was discovered that a great spirit had stolen the ofo and fled into the Dark Forest, no doubt to create chaos in the kingdom.

This presented both danger and an opportunity for the king to truly test his two potential heirs. So he called them to his throne room and publically gave them the quest to bring back the ofo. Okeke and Okafor gratefully accepted.

First they visted the dibia for supernatural fortification and weapons against the dreaded spirits of the Dark. Then, before departing, they visited their fathers for advice. Both of their fathers told them the same thing; that their greatest strength on this perilous journey would be each other. Unknown to them, this was no mere advice; the supernatural protection from the dibia were all dependent on them working in harmony.

The two young men set off on their quest. Soon they had ventured far past the kingdom and into the forest. At first, they merely faced animals and bandits, no great threat to strong well-trained young nobles like themselves, armed with supernatural weapons . Indeed, it was almost sport for them as they tested the skills they had long honed at their father's knees and in the training halls of the finest weapons-masters of all the land. They met the challenges and found themselves not wanting, a pleasing experience to be sure.

This changed when they entered the Dark Forest. At first, it seemed like any other forest just with deeper shadows. Then they noticed the birdsong was silent yet the wild animals remained, strangely more cunning and more vicious than any before but soon, even that became the least of their problems. Soon they found themselves beset by stranger and more terrible foes; living spiderwebs, flowers that spewed poison, strange phantasms that attacked only in dreams.

Still, the two persevered and survived. If they were scarred in body and mind, then they were scars that left behind scar tissue, scars that made strong.And always, they had each other and thus remained unconquered.

At last the two reached the abode of the great spirit. To their dull surprise, it did not toy with them, sending out echoes of echoes of voices from every corner, did not dance from shadow to shadow trailed by the laughter of homicidal infants.

No. The great spirit merely waited for them in the middle of a clearing, a figure not unlike a man, if that man stood eight feet in height with limbs far too long for his torso and if that man were a shifting shape of blackened raffia and skittering white scorpions.

The great spirit stood, swaying gently as if in a breeze only it could feel, 'shoulders' loose, 'arms' hanging low, 'hands' dragging the earth. It had the supreme confidence of a legendary undefeated wrestler awaiting his next new challenger.

They approached cautiously yet with determination, weapons in light-fingered ready grips, eyes alert to treachery from any angle.

Then to their surprise, the great spirit laughed, loud and hearty, a voice far more human than its form, like one of their uncles might laugh at the king's hearth. Then it spoke: "This ofo is not why I am here. Something else interests me"

One hand dragged across the dust and in the wake was left the ofo, the entire purpose of their great quest. The spirit laughed again and took a great cloud-clearing leap backward out of the clearing and was gone, leaving the two young warriors bewildered.

With even greater caution, they inched closer to the ofo as it lay in the dust. With the wordless thoughtless cooperation they had earned in their journey, Okeke flanked to the left, widening the gap between them lest the great spirit or some other threat return to strike down both of them at one blow. His every sense was alert to the shadowed edges of the clearing, that no last surprise slay them at this paramount juncture.

Meanwhile, Okafor, foot by careful foot, approached the prize. His heart thudded in his chest, his mouth was dry, his stomach sought to crawl up his throat. By will and hard experience, he fought down both excitement and dread and came closer still. Crouched to one knee, weapon in his left hand, he reached for it with his right. At last. He had it.

Victorious, the two young men jubilantly began their return journey. The spirits seemed to have lost interest and they faced no more threats as they raced home. If this should have seemed suspicious, they were too relieved to care.

As they reached the edge of the ordinary forest, Okafor began to think _____ thoughts. He was already holding the ofo after all. After such an epic quest, the king would definitely reward them richly – but wouldn’t he reward one more than two? And so, Okafor began to plot Okeke’s demise.

Okeke on the other hand was deep in thought, pondering the words and actions of the great spirit. “Something else interests me” Why had it not attacked, why had it so easily yielded the ofo it had stolen in the first place? Could it be a false ofo? But no, he had seen it many times in the king’s palace and surely, the dibia would not lead them astray. Because of these, he knew not what Okafor planned for him.

Okafor, remembering his condition of the lungs, hit upon a scheme. He pretended to fall into a fit, fell to the ground gasping his breath away. Okeke, by now familiar with it, raced away to find the appropriate herbs. Okafor sprang to his feet and leaped into a tree to hide. Minutes later, Okeke raced back, to find Okafor absent.

Thus it came as a complete surprise when Okafor’s machete found the back of his head from a great height. Okeke fell to the forest floor, dead. Okafor cleaned his machete in the dust, took up the ofo and set for home.

Arriving at the kingdom, he was met with great jubilation and celebration. In the palace, when questioned as to their quest and Okeke’s whereabouts, he spun a tale of noble self-sacrifice, where Okeke had died in their valiant battle with the greats spirit, leaving he Okafor no choice but to return with the ofo alone.

Meanwhile, Okeke’s corpse lay on the forest floor, curiously undisturbed. No wild animal had partaken of his flesh and the worms had touched him not. Soon, the forest edge stirred and with a great crashing sound, the great spirit arrived! It placed a hand on Okeke’s skull and, with a cry in an unspeakable language, Okeke returned to shocked gasping life.

The Great Spirit spoke: “I told you I was not interested in the ofo , I was interested in something else. That something else was you. Go home. The king knows what to do.”

Without further words, Okeke returned to the Shining Kingdom, meeting a place of celebration and joy which turned to shock when they saw him alive. He spoke no words to anyone, walking straight to the palace.

He arrived at an unexpected scene. The king was in session with his full court and indeed about to announce his heir. Okafor stood next to him, proud and joyous. The king announced: “Behold my new heir, the successor of the Shining Kingdom throne, the husband to my daughter, future king of the Shining Kingdom … Okeke!”

Okeke at the door was surprised although it began to fade as he remembered the Great Spirits words “Go home. The king knows what to do.” The rest of the court however was in pandemonium, agog with shock and surprise. Okafor, realizing his doom, made to escape but was captured by guards that seemed a little too ready for his attempt.

As Okeke approached the throne, the king narrated the story of what had truly transpired with the ofo, revealing that he and the dibia had masterminded the entire quest, summoning the great spirit to steal the ofo in order to test for the true heir.

With that, the celebrations began anew, this time for the rightful heir to the kingdom. Okeke was crowned as the king’s successor. Okafor - alone - was cast into the dungeons to be seen no more.

Glossary

Dibia: medicine-man, supernatural intercessor between humans and spirits and/or gods as well as maker of herbal medicines

Ofo: a staff of office that symbolizes authority